[3] She has since starred in the streaming projects Ludo (2020), Ajeeb Daastaans (2021) and Modern Love Mumbai (2022), and portrayed Indira Gandhi in the biographical drama Sam Bahadur (2023).

[2] Years later, she played Zoya in the Indian drama film Tahaan, which received "The German Star of India award" at "Bollywood and Beyond" festival at Stuttgart, Germany in 2009.

[10] Shaikh was selected for Nitesh Tiwari's biographical sports film Dangal along with Sanya Malhotra, who had never acted before.

[11] To prepare for her role, she watched several videos on wrestling to understand "how wrestlers move, walk, their body language".

[7] Released in 2016, Dangal received critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing Indian film ever with earnings of more than ₹2,000 crore (US$230 million) worldwide.